Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Her queer little ways

Every now and then your childhood sneaks up and reminds you where you came from. In the midst of the mundane task of retrieving the mail yesterday, between the bills, bank statements and other banal reminders of adulthood was a time capsule. My “Anne of Green Gables” DVD set finally arrived, a belated Christmas gift from my mother. I’d forgotten they were coming, a function of falling too quickly back into the frazzled schedule of work and grown-up demands. But there they were, waiting patiently for me to remember. And remember I did.

I own all the books, of course. They sit neatly in a place of honor on my bookshelf, worn from time and hours of reading into the darkness of the night. L.M. Montgomery was my J.K. Rowling. I have almost everything ever bound and stamped with her name – Anne, Emily, Pat, Rilla and an endless assortment of short anthologies of occasionally questionable quality. But those I read on my own. I watched the series on TV with my family. I became obsessed with visiting Prince Edward Island (which I eventually convinced them to do one summer vacation) while watching the series on TV with my family. . I fell in love with Megan Follows (albeit unbeknownst to them, and me at the time) while watching the series on TV with my family.

This series, the one I now held in my hand. I’m not sure what took me so long to buy them. OK, they’re a tad pricey and I’m a tad cheap. Also the complete set didn’t come out until 2008. Someone in a drawer somewhere in my parents’ house gathering dust I have the complete series on VHS, recorded lovely from repeats on PBS. (OK, not “The Continuing Story” because – come on – those weren’t even based on the books). I had to fight the urge to put them on immediately and watch them back-to-back-to-back for an unending loop of spectacular sunsets along red sand beaches. But I didn’t. Work, bills, adulthood stood in the way.

But don’t worry, I will find the time. I must. Anne with an e was my hero growing up, with her smarts and spunk. She was an orphan who survived on the sheer force of her imagination, a dreamer, a thinker, a romantic, a kindred spirit. She was stubborn and prone to getting into scrapes. She was the best bosom friend a little girl could have – for Diana Barry and the rest of us. I look forward to spending time with her again soon. We have so much to catch up on after all these years.

19 comments:

I too was a huge fan of Anne of Green Gables when I was a kid. I broke down and brought the DVDs as soon as they came out, including the horrible Anne 3 which had nothing to do with the books whatsoever.

Oh Anne... My mother introduced Anne to me and my sister when we were young as it had been a favourite of hers when she was young, and I quickly grew to love them, and we all watched the series when it was on TV. I bought the DVDs just last year, and watched them again with my mother and sister over Christmas vacation... they're so lovely.

Ah, so much of your past with Anne is true for me as well. The late night reading (over and over and OVER again), the cherished video tapes recorded from PBS, the unknown-to-me-then-but-so-obvious-now crush on Megan Follows... *sigh*.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I too became obsessed with wanting to visit PEI, but I have yet to make it. Hopefully some day in the not too distant future I can finally live out my childhood Anne dreams of seeing the Lake of Shinning Waters with a bosom friend of my very own.

this dvd set is the only thing i asked for for christmas after i caught a couple episodes recently on pbs. brought back so many fond memories. uh, i didn't get them. but merry christmas to me cause this inspired me to get on amazon. :)

my gf and i spent a summer in PEI, near "anne's land" and fell in love with it. At the end of the summer we hunkered down and watched anne of green gables from start to end and fell in love all over again! thanks for the reminder this morning!

was it saturday? somewhatI recorded it, too. high quality video tapes,I also recorded the anime,woke up every sunday morning 8:30am.

so people like to borrow, then nevergive to me back my collection.now it's meaningless, I want to buyDVD someday. after I'm able to buyall things on my list, first.

somewhat, it didn't match the book?I didn't read the book, hahaha~I know there are books, thenafter the success, she wrote aboutold Anne, and gilbert? I heard fromsomeone, actually I didn't read the books.

you know anime, and drama is lotsbetter, and well done. so why bother?

thanks for today's posting,I think they really casting well,the actor really looks like Anneif there is real Anne alive.and the other actors, too.great casting. only thing,little weird is diana should lookmore feminine? how do you think?

on the drama the actor looks,in my view point kind of tough.I prefer amime's diana.yes, that's Japanese view point.

I heard that they went to Canada tostudy the mood and everything.They did good Job.

Oh! I hadn't realized that there was a new DVD release - I'm intrigued by whatever they might be including in as extras (I have a cumbersome set that requires *flipping over* in the middle, but those things helped get me through my first year of law school, so I can't begrudge them too much.)

Ah, Anne. Such an awesome story, and one of the few things where I place the movies above the books. Here's hoping you have a free evening sometime soon.

Gah-I just watched Anne of Green Gables this weekend with a friend who had to be torn from the tv set when the series first was released back in the 80s. I had never seen it so we settled in for a super gay Sunday afternoon of watching Anne-girl and her adventures. Now i'm hooked, and am looking forward to Anne of Avonlea. I must admit that I kept getting punched for making comments about the bosom-friendness...apparently AoGG is sacred and wholesome, no matter how much we can read into the night of the ball and sleepover...

And how was PEI on that vacation? Did it measure up? Because I may just move there.

Many, many, many years ago, two fairly unknown Toronto actresses were up for the lead guest role on a popular Canadian TV series called "Hangin' In": one of the actresses was Megan Follows, and the other one was me. That damn Megan Follows beat me out for the role, and then she did it a couple of more times on a couple of more jobs, and then I got the message and switched to journalism.

In any case, I'm lucky enough to have memories of her from quite a few years before she played Anne of Green Gables, and I was also lucky enough to have worked with her very talented father on a few occasions. Now we're both older, and she's swooned over by lesbians young and old, and I live in a small American town and look after sick cats. Not that I don't love the cats, but I'm still vaguely envious :)

Btw, it's nice to see so many Americans with an appreciation of AoGG, both the book and TV series. I had no idea. I highly recommend reading the biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery that came out a year or two ago if you get the chance... she was definitely crushing on a lot of women in real life at the same time Anne was crushing on Diana.

My sister and her family went out to PEI last summer and my nieces went wild over Green Gables - so they got the DVD set for Xmas. Gaymos in training, fingers crossed! Also, my sister said there were busloads of Japanese tourists at GG.

Yes. Just yes to all of this. As a Canadian it's so nice to know that Anne is out in the world.And Continuing Story? Dead right. Did you know they made a new movie last year? YEAH Anne of Green Gables: The Beginning based on a prequel some lunatic wrote. Shirley Maclaine and Barbara Hershey are in it. I can't bring myself to watch that insanity. Look up the trailer on youtube. I dare you. -Heather